Privacy Policy

Commitment to Your Privacy

This website is owned and operated by Civic Ventures, d.b.a. Encore.org. We understand you value your privacy. At Civic Ventures, we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe. This Privacy Policy governs information you provide to us or we learn from your use of this website and tells you how we may collect, use, and in some instances share this information.

Information Civic Ventures Collects and How We Use It

Information You Provide

We may ask you to provide us with personal information if you would like to participate in some activities available on, or benefit from services offered on, this website. Personal information means any information that may be used to identify an individual, including, but not limited to, your name, home address, telephone number, email address, personal interests, professional background information and a brief biographical sketch. Through the use of forms we may collect this information to help provide you with Civic Ventures services and respond to your requests. We may combine the information you submit under your account with information from other Civic Ventures services or third parties in order to provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our services.

In general, the types and amount of personal information collected for these activities will vary depending on the activity. We try to limit our requests for personal information to information we believe is minimally necessary to achieve our stated collection purposes.

We may also use aggregate information collected from our users. This information does not personally identify you and is used to help enhance the website and our services.

In addition, you may voluntarily decide to post, include, and transmit information through publicly accessible forums (i.e., such as user comments and blogs). Please keep in mind that any information that is disclosed in these publicly accessible forums is public. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.

Usage Tracking

We track product usage data to improve the services we offer to our users. We collect user traffic patterns throughout our website. This information is collected to help improve website flow and usability. In addition, we track click-through information, including IP addresses, to our website from the reports and emails we sent to our customers. This is done to gauge the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and to discourage fraudulent use. However, we do not correlate this information with the personal information of individual users.

Cookies

We may place a text file called a “cookie” in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain personal information although it will enable us to relate your use of this website to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie cannot read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other websites. Civic Ventures may use cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above). In addition, Civic Ventures uses encrypted cookies to authenticate the user on each page after the user logs onto the website. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you have set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. Some Civic Ventures features and services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled.

Our Usage of Personal Information

We process personal information as described above and also for such purposes as:

To deliver our services to users; To highlight featured members on our website or in promotional material; To conduct research and analysis in order to maintain and improve our services; To alert you to service updates, special offers, updated information and other new services. You may opt-out of these communications if you so choose; To contact you in response to requests for information such as “Contact Us.

Children

Consistent with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we do not, nor will we, knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requiring parental consent. Any person who provides their personal information to Civic Ventures through this website represents that they are 13 years of age or older.

User Access

We make a good faith effort to provide you with access to your personal information to correct data that may be inaccurate or delete data at your request. We may decline to process requests that are unreasonably repetitive or systematic, require disproportionate technical effort, jeopardize the privacy of others, would be extremely impractical, or where information is required to be retained by law or for legitimate business purposes.

Civic Ventures Transfer and Information Sharing Policy

We do not share personal information collected on this website with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We may provide personal information to or permit access to personal information by our vendors and service providers for the purpose of processing personal information on our behalf or where such access is incident to their assisting us. Civic Ventures does not otherwise share personal information about website users with third parties unless doing so is appropriate to carry out a user’s request or it reasonably believes that doing so is legally required or is in Civic Ventures’ interest to protect its property or other legal rights or the rights or property of others.

Merger, Sale or Reorganization of Civic Ventures

If Civic Ventures should ever file for bankruptcy or have its assets sold to or merged with another entity, information Civic Ventures receives from you, from this website, is a Civic Ventures asset and may be transferred.

Affiliated Websites, Other Websites, and Advertisements

This Privacy Policy applies to websites and services that are owned and operated by Civic Ventures. We do not exercise control over the websites of third parties that you may link to or view as part of a frame on a page on this website. These other sites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data, or solicit personal information from you. We are not responsible for the actions or policies of such third parties. You should check the applicable privacy policies of those third parties when providing information on a feature or page operated by a third party.

International Visitors and Customers

This website is hosted in the United States. If you are visiting from the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law please note that you are transferring your personal data to the U.S. which does not have the same data protection laws as the EU and by providing your personal data you consent to: the use of your personal data for the uses identified above in accordance with this Privacy Policy; and the transfer of your personal data to the U.S. as indicated above.

Security

No data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make reasonable efforts to ensure security on our systems. We use secure server software (SSL) and firewalls to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach of such firewalls and secure server software.

If Civic Ventures learns of a security systems breach we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using this website or providing personal information to us you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of this website. Civic Ventures may post a notice on our website if a security breach occurs. Civic Ventures may also send an email to you at the email address you have provided to us in these circumstances. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive free written notice of a security breach (or to withdraw your consent from receiving electronic notice) you should notify us at: privacypolicy [at] civicventures.org.

Changes and Updates

We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will also revise the “effective date” on the Privacy Policy. For changes to this Privacy Policy that may be materially less restrictive on our use or disclosure of personal information you have provided to us, we will attempt to obtain your consent before implementing the change. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting the Personal Information we collect. Your continued use of this website constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any updates.

Contacting Civic Ventures

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Civic Ventures or this Privacy Policy, please email us at privacypolicy [at] civicventures.org. In the event that we are still unable to resolve your concerns Civic Ventures is committed to cooperating to achieve a proper resolution of your privacy concerns.